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Legal Daily: Mining Malware May Endanger Public Safety

According to the report by Legal Daily, mining Trojan are is allegedly pose a threat to public security and therefore might be considered as an act that violates the criminal law in China.

According to the “China Mobile Security Status Report 2017”, mining Trojan was first discovered on the PC platform in 2013, and the first mobile phone mining Trojan CoinKrypt was first revealed by foreign security vendors in March 2014. With the rising price of cryptocurrency, malware creators once again focus on profiting from mining malwares.
Liu Deliang, professor of the Law School of the Beijing Normal University, believes that mining Trojans are harmful in multiple ways and two aspects are most prominent. First of all, the Trojan itself is a malicious program that hacks into the user’s computer, mobile phone and other terminal devices. This illegal intrusion first violates the user’s right to the information storage space. The memory of mobile phones and PCs is a space dedicated to storing information. After a Trojan intrudes, the storage space where more information can be stored can no longer be used. Secondly, the Trojans will steal personal information and monitor user behavior, which will be used to manipulate user behavior or obtain more information for profit.

“If there is mining malware on a website, owner of which should take more responsibility. However existing law does not specify that website owner or operator should be liable for the security of the websites. It is still a controversial issue. As far as cybersecurity law is concerned, there is still no clear rule. In the future, under the network environment, whether the owners of websites or webpages need to shoulder the security protection obligations in order to provide users with a relatively safe browsing environment. I think it is worth considering.”

said Liu Deliang.
As revealed in the 2017 Android Mining Trojans Report, mining Trojans are heading to 3 directions.

1. Website switch source of income from ads to mining.
2. Monero is the most favored cryptocurrency
3. Hacker target cryptocurrency wallet for immediate and direct profits.

How can the law be used against mining trojans?

“Propagating the use of malware is an illegal act. It’s not just a breach of civil law, but it can constitute a crime that impedes public order and public safety in the public security law and criminal law. What is hazardous to public safety? Public safety is an illegal or criminal act against the personal interests and property interests of unspecified people. If you set up a Trojan on a website, the majority of visitors of the website or webpage is not specified, which is in line with the essential elements that jeopardize public safety. Therefore, from the law on public security management and criminal law, it should be regarded as an act that violates public safety or is a criminal act.”

said Liu Deliang.

Liu Deliang believes that the current criminal law and the relevant provisions of the Public Security Administration Punishment Act do not regard the use of malicious programs as an act that jeopardizes public safety, but rather treat it as a nuisance to social management order.

“According to articles 285 and 286 of the Criminal Law, acts that hamper the order of social management are the lightest crimes in the criminal law. Because the nature of jeopardizing public safety is conducted against property and personal ineptest of unspecified targets. Although trojans on the website is targeting at property interests of most unspecified people, it will cause harm to some personality rights, privacy rights, etc. Therefore, this kind of behavior damage personal interests and property interests of most people.”

Liu Deliang said that the current law is not strict enough for the use of malware.